U.K.'s ONS Warns on Zombie Firms

By

Jason Douglas

Jan. 16, 2013 6:42 a.m. ET

LONDON—Unproductive firms are being kept alive by low interest rates and lender forbearance, a phenomenon that may be dragging down overall productivity in the U.K., the Office for National Statistics said in research published Wednesday.

The ONS examined recent data on individual companies and found firms with poor productivity became less productive in 2008 and 2009, while highly-productive firms became more so. The agency said...